Ouch. Some of these are rough. A rejected proposal has to be an incredibly tough thing to go through, but in the long run, most of these people are probably thankful it didn’t work out.

Take a look at these 12 stories from AskReddit.

1. Level Headed

Current girlfriend, actually. About a year ago I asked her to marry me and she gave me an incredibly painful but calculated, level-headed response. I took her out to a beautiful place where you can look at most of the Inland Empire and if there are clouds it looks like some shit from a Disney movie.Anyway, after asking, and her saying no (very gently), I remember her exact words: “I love you, but we are both just absolutely not ready.” We talked about it extensively and while I was hurt initially, she’s more than shown since then that she’s committed to me. We’ve built a better relationship since then, not that it was bad, and we could do it right now (and have talked about it) but at this point, I’m definitely not as ready as I thought I was. Table’s kind of turned, actually.

2. Cubic Zirconia

I was in the military at the time (living on ramen so I could save money) .. spent every penny I had on an engagement ring. She thought the diamond was Cubic Zirconia (aka: a cheap imitation of a diamond) and her response to me was “Do I look like a girl who wears glass?”. I haven’t said a word to her since.

I didn’t expect her response, but I should have. In hindsight, I was in my early 20s and extremely dumb.

Before people start talking about how cheap grown diamonds are (like the youngsters on reddit typically do when I mention this story) .. artificial diamonds became available to the public around 2005 or 2006 (and still took time for the price to be worth it). This event happened in late 2003 or early 2004, so no, spending less on an artificial diamond wasn’t an option.

3. No more booze

Ask my current girlfriend to marry me almost every time I am drunk. She always say’s no.

4. Cruise

5 years together

first night of a cruise, she said no

we try to enjoy the cruise anyway

week later she tells me she’s cheating on me

10/10 would not recommend

5. On second thought…

My girl asked me to marry her, and I said “no”. She wasn’t surprised or shocked, but I felt I wasn’t ready. She just said “that’s okay” and we went on dating. About a month later I asked her to marry me (super romantic — we were at the mall eating pizza and while she had a slice in her mouth I said: “So do you still want to get married or what?”) and she said “yes”.

Been married 27 years.

6. “Accidentally”

Accidentally got a no. Proposed in a restaurant to my current wife, the whole ring in the cupcake and everything. I go on one knee, and propose, completely not taking into account how bad her social anxiety can be, I just figured her books have these types of things, maybe she’d like it. She panicked, said no, and ran out.